Samuel Aspinwall 1727

Shepard Allin

Eleazer Baker

HERE LIES Y^e BODY OF CAP^t. SAMUEL ASPINWALL DEC^D. SEP^t. Y^e 6^th 1727 IN Y^e 65^th YEAR OF HIS AGE

Footstone (lost after 1920): Cap^t. Samuel Aspinwall

In 1727, at the age of sixty-five, the Captain was drowned in Charles River, not far from his farm. One can imagine something of the sensation this event must have produced in this thinly settled town; the loss of so prominent a citizen, the search for the body, - the military procession, for he was buried under arms, - the long funeral sermon, probably in the little church then only ten years built, - the vacant seat in the square pew, "in the northwest corner," - the muffled drums, and the volley fired over the grave.

And how it was doubtless the topic of conversation among neighbors when they met for weeks after, and with what superstitious awe they looked upon the fore-runner or "warning" as they probably considered it, that he. should have selected for his morning reading at family devotions the 27th chapter of the Proverbs, beginning, "Boast not thyself of to-morrow, for thou knowest not what a day may bring forth. H. F. W., p. 67.

Text from Harriet Alma Cummings. Burials and Inscriptions in the Walnut Street Cemetery. Brookline: The Riverdale Press, 1920.

Shepard Allin

Eleazer Baker